A landmark history of Australia's first successful settler farming area, which was on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River. Award-winning historian Grace Karskens uncovers the everyday lives of ordinary people in the early colony, both Aboriginal and British.

Selected quotations from two of the most famous books in the English language, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - and featuring some of the famous original illustrations by artist John Tenniel.